PAPAW

2727

PAPER

the nineteenth century, was subject to the
temporal authority of the Pope. The terri-
tory extended irregularly from the Adriatic
to the Mediterranean and latterly comprised
an area of ahout 15,000 square miles. Rome
was the capital. The Papal States were, with
the exception of the capital and the land im-
mediately adjoining, made a part of the
territory of Victor Tmmanuel in 1860, and
Rome was annexed to the kingdom of Italy
ten years later. At this date the temporal
authority of the Pope ceased, except over hi?
palace, the Vatican. See VATICAN.

PAPAW, the name given to two different
species of fruit-bearing plants. The tropical
pap aw, or papaya, is cultivated in warm
climates, and to some extent in southern and
central United States. It grows rapidly,
and attains a height of fifteen to thirty feet.
The fruit, somewhat resembling a small can-
taloupe, is a favorite breakfast dish through-
out the tropics generally. The green fruits,
as well as the whole plant, abound in a milky
sap that contains a valuable digestive fer-
ment.

Another species, also called papaw, is
native in the northern and eastern states. This
often grows to a height of about twenty-five
feet, produces a fruit five or six inches long,
an inch thick, and covered with a wrinkled
brown skin. This fruit also is edible, con-
siderable quantities of it being sold each
year in the fruit stores of the larger cities.
It contains numerous large kidney-shaped
seeds, which are enjoyed by birds. The bark
of the papaw is sometimes used in the mak-
ing of fish nets.

PAPER. The wasp was the first paper
maker. Centuries before alphabets were in-
vented, or the art of writing was known, this
little insect was busy plying his trade of
building paper houses. Let any boy or girl
who is surprised at this statement examine
an abandoned wasp's nest, and notice the
quality of the paper of which it is made. The
wasp makes its paper of wood, and it is
thought that the wasp nest gave men the idea
of using wood in the manufacture of paper
on a large scale.

The name paper comes from papyrus, a
plant used by the Egyptians for a fabric
to write upon. But papyrus is not paper,
and the art of paper making did not origi-
nate with the Egyptians. It is not known
who was the inventor, but it was made by
the Chinese two centuries before the begin-

ning of the Christian Era, and they were
probably the originators. Paper was in use
in Europe during the eleventh century, and
by the thirteenth century it was well known.
By the beginning of the fourteenth century
it had become common in England, but it
was not manufactured there until 1685, The
first paper mill in the United States was built
near Philadelphia in 1690, but It was more
than one hundred years before paper was
manufactured in large quantities.

Manufacture. Paper can be made from
any vegetable fiber, also from silk and wool,
though these substances are not desirable.
Formerly all paper was made from cotton
and linen rags, and the work was performed
entirely by hand labor. The rags were
cleaned and ground into a fine pulp which
was floated in water. The consistency of the
pulp determined the thickness of the paper.
The tank was continually stirred to insure an
even distribution of the pulp, and the paper
was made by dipping into the tank shallow
boxes called deckles, with bottoms of a wire
screen of fine mesh. As the box was raised
the water drained out, leaving a thin layer
of pulp evenly distributed over the screen.
The box was then inverted over a layer of
felt, on which the forming paper fell. The
layers of felt were placed in piles and pressed
to squeeze out more water. They were then
spread out and left until the paper became
dry enough to hoH together, when the drying
was completed by hanging the sheets on lines
in the yard about the mill, or in the drying
room, Paper made in this way had a rough
surface and was of poor quality.

Paper is now made wholly by machinery,
and most of it is from wood pulp, but the
fundamental processes of the old hand mill
are still employed. The pulp is passed
through three sets of grinders, called engines,
to make it fine enough for a good grade of
paper. These grinders consist of knives,
fastened to revolving cylinders and playing
between smaller knives in the bottom of an
oval tank. The rotation of the cylinder
gives the water in the tank a motion which
draws the pulp under the grinder. During
the process the necessary bleaching matter,
sizing and coloring matter are added. When
the grinding is completed, the pulp resembles
a quantity of riee and milk. From the last
grinder it is sent to the storage tank, from
which it is pumped to the paper-making ma-,
chine.